NEWS

Monday, January 22, 2007

$1.2 Billion Allocated to Recovery Plan for Puget Sound Chinook Salmon

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Today, the US federal government announced it has given its approval for a recovery plan that will keep Puget Sound’s endangered Chinook salmon from going extinct and return their population to healthy numbers.

The money for the plan is to be given over ten years. Developed over five years by Shared Strategy for Puget Sound, a coalition of citizen groups and local, state, tribal and federal representatives, the plan is said to be the largest and most comprehensive recovery plan prepared under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“It’s been a long, arduous process,” said Joan McBride, deputy mayor of Kirkland. “It started many years ago, and I think this is a day to celebrate.”

The blueprint plan calls for spending $1.2 billion in the next 10 years - a doubling of current efforts - to boost chinook runs by 20 percent.

“The big challenge is implementation,” said Doug Osterman, a King County employee coordinating salmon recovery in the Green and Duwamish rivers and along 90 miles of marine shoreline. “We’re really going to rely on state and federal governments to come through with the funding.”

“Scarce dollars need to be spent very wisely to keep the public’s confidence and trust in what we do,” said Jeff Koenings, director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Like the Fraser Salmon & Watersheds Program & ThinkSalmon, the plan targets human impacts on fish and their environment. The US plan will also focus on hatchery management, tougher land-use restrictions, and it ill look at recreational and tribal fishermen and how they can reduce their harvest of wild chinook.

$1.2 billion is a lot of money for one species. How much will it take to save salmon and the Fraser River alone?

Read the full article published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Jan 22, 2007.